Innocence (OUAT/Peter Pan)

Chapter 13: The Past and the Present

"So, you were never going to tell us your name?" Felix called from behind her as they climbed through the forest. She had woken up back on the bed about an hour after the sunrise, the tent empty. She had climbed out and found Felix, wanting to just wander around and explore the island. He had agreed but didn't think they would get very far. Robert had overheard, and suggested they make it a whole adventure and pack camping supplies. The idea excited Felix, and she could hardly say no to him so energetic. He had lived on the island almost as long as Pan had, but they spent the majority of their time at camp. It was now around noon and they had only just exited the boys' hunting territory. Now it was a no-man's-land kind of place, open to any. Felix had said it would take a few more hours until they'd enter fairy territory.

            "No," she stated bluntly.

            "What is so bad about it? It's an interesting name," he trailed, provoking her.

            "It's cursed," she said through her teeth. He scoffed. She sighed and slowed her pace. "When the mistress took me, I tried to scream through the window that I was here, I tried to yell my name. After a few months, it started to work. Villagers would stop nearby, they had heard it faintly. Then, she caught on, and she cast a curse. If I, or anyone, ever spoke my name, my parents would die."

            "No," Felix replied. She tripped in confusion. "Didn't Pan tell you? You can't make people die solely by magic."

            "I didn't know the details, and I still don't. Maybe saying it triggered something else and it killed them indirectly. I didn't care, and I still don't. Either way, they're now dead because of him," she yelled. She covered her mouth at the end, "I'm sorry, Felix," she whispered.

            He stepped forward and hugged her, turning her in his arms so her back was to him and beginning to walk again. "Besides, Neverland is a different realm. One with far more magic—and far more difficult to get to—than the Enchanted Forest. There's a high chance it didn't actually work. You could actually have a name."

            "And if it did?" she breathed. She felt him chuckle.

            "Then we can still use your name, because the deed is already done." He paused, "when's the last time you saw your parents?"

            "I was five, the night I was taken. They put me to bed, I was throwing quite the tantrum as they left," she smirked. "I just felt something wrong. They brushed it off, I was just a child. Then, that night, glowing red dust was thrown on my face and everything went black. I woke up in the tower. And never left, or saw them again," she whispered. The details on that night were fuzzy from time, but she remembered the fear and confusion and shock clearly. The sadness had come later, when she realized she really wasn't seeing her family again.

            "Didn't they ever look for you?" he asked, sounding surprised and a bit angry. She thought, trying to recall all those years. The days had blended together, she hadn't had a way to keep track of time except for tallies on the wall. They only thing those helped keep track of was her birthday, and even that she didn't know the exact day. She did remember how the view outside rarely changed.

            She breathed slowly. "I could see the whole kingdom, my mistress' idea of kindness," she spat. "I saw them a few times. I watched their funeral." Her mistress hadn't been much of a mother, so she didn't know how parents were supposed to act. But family was supposed to love one another; the Lost Boys had run out of their territory and faced Rumpelstiltskin over her, and they weren't even her original family.